Buy Street Fighter IV or Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and what"s the first thing you have to do? That"s right, unlock stuff. Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada, however, considers that process outdated.

"Why we locked the characters originally was that in the arcades, it was kind of to extend the life of the game by gradually unlocking characters. And also with the home versions as well, because you can rent games or whatever, it was to protect us against that," Harada told VideoGamer.com at Namco Bandai"s Europe event.

"That"s kind of outdated now though, especially with online play. If we were to have locked characters it would irritate a lot of people, to be playing against others online and to not have all the characters available. So I think it"s no longer useful."